NOTE: This is Part 2 of a three-part series about the mule, the hybrid problem in science, and ways in which Darwinism and the Jewish Bible illuminate each other. You can find the other parts here:

“God is the source not only of order but also novelty.” – John Haught, God after Darwin (Boulder: Westview, 2000) p. 182

Anah’s mule

The Book of Genesis tells the story of how Esau met his twin Jacob (Israel) after twenty years, apparently forgives him for cheating him out of his inheritance from Isaac, and then goes down to Seir, where Jacob agrees to meet him … eventually.

Jacob’s in no rush to get there. He doesn’t trust Esau, and in any case, he and his expanding tribe have several adventures that delay them, including the rape of his daughter, annihilating a city, and burying his beloved wife Rachel.